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Perinatal Nursing in Uncertain Times: The Katrina Effect

Abstract

Purpose: To make explicit the perinatal nurses' shared meanings of their lived experience while providing nursing care in the New Orleans area during the disaster of Hurricane Katrina.

Study Design: Interpretative phenomenology.

Methods: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 perinatal nurses 9 to 18 months after they worked in obstetrical and newborn hospital settings in the Greater New Orleans area during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Van Manen's process of reflective thematic analysis-guided data analysis was used.

Clinical Implications: Nurses who work during disasters must live through the uncertainty of the situation and be prepared to adapt to the needs that arise in patient care situations and self-preservation. Excellent basic nursing skills, intuitive problem solving, and a sense of staff unity are primary resources. Nurses and other caregivers need ongoing supportive interventions to rebound from the experience and cope with symptoms associated with trauma exposure.

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